


Pretty Soul Magica! Episode: War and Peace!

by plethola



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-22
Packaged: 2018-02-14 06:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2180862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plethola/pseuds/plethola
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pretty Soul of Peace, Sayaka Miki, was defeated in battle. Can the rest of the Pretty Souls find the strength to fight another day after this tragic loss? Maybe Cube can offer some encouragement in this respect! Discover Cube's tragic history, and the true nature of Revenants on this episode of Pretty Soul Magica!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pretty Soul Magica! Episode: War and Peace!

“Sayaka Miki is dead.”

The creature hopped carefully over the stack of manga, down to the carpet. Choked sobs, a door opening and shutting. Her slender ears curled into neat, flat rolls, a natural reflex for her kind. Everyone was upset. Of course, she thought, pacing the length of the futon. Of course they would be upset. After all, she was probably the most upset out of all of them. She had failed them all. 

“I bear full responsibility,” she said, pawing the ground in conviction. “I did not do my job properly. I put you out there before you were even ready. For this, I am deeply ashamed.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Cube,” said Mami, sniffing a little. She wrapped her arms around Madoka, who had started to shake. “We all knew what we were getting into. We knew there was a risk in becoming the protectors of planet Earth. Sayaka knew that more than all of us, I think.”

“The subtraction energy was too much, it—“ Cube stopped talking as Madoka’s cries became louder. “I am deeply sorry, everyone.” A frizzy silence, save for Madoka's crying. The door opened, but just a crack, revealing the shadow of someone watching the activity in the room.

“If it was anyone’s fault, it was mine,” said Hitomi, clenching her soul wand. “Me and Saya were fighting over something silly all week. As a result, she was in a constant bad mood, picking too many reckless fights with Revenants. And that fight with Umbrus… she just…”

“No one’s fault,” said the shadow at the door. “And if you’re going to blame yourself, then you might as well step on her dead body and fight me in place of Sayaka, because I’m pretty sure she would’ve wanted nobody talking like that. She always hated people taking the blame for things they didn't do.” 

“Cube,” said Homura, her glasses balanced between her fingers. “There’s nothing we can do for Sayaka?”

Cube blinked and turned to the side. “There is something,” said Cube, but stopped and said no more beyond that.

“Cube? Tell us,” said Mami. “If it will help, please tell us.”

“Listen, leader,” said Kyoko, “if you’ve got nothing, don’t get our hopes up. I’m happy to just continue the life I dedicated to fighting evil. I'm sure Sayaka would say the same thing.”

Cube looked up at her. She was framed by the door, which threw the light of the sunset into the otherwise gray room. The effect cast a shadow over her face, but Cube could see her eyes clearly, how pink they were, how exhausted. 

She looked at Mami. The older girl’s eyes were wide with a mixture of fear, quiet resolution and surprise. Her lip was quivering slightly. If another were to die, just one more, she would be the first to break into despair, thought Cube. 

Madoka had stopped crying, and lay limp and unmoving in Mami’s arms, not even bothering to wipe the tears. Hitomi’s head bobbed slightly. A defeated sort of smile twisted her lips.

Cube turned to Homura. Homura Akemi. Her face betrayed no emotion. Could Homura, the Pretty Soul of Heart, be the one most affected out of all them? Did that give her this strength? All the same, her demeanor betrayed to Cube a hint of some secret knowledge.

“Tell me, Homura Akemi,” said Cube. “How did you know I was hiding things from you girls?”

“We may be young, but we’re not stupid,” said Homura. “You have the same face the doctors tell people when they say there’s nothing they can do, when it’s really a matter of money or resources they can’t acquire. I never believed this lie, and I won’t now.”

“Is this true, Cube?” said Mami. “You’ve been keeping information from us?”

“I want to go home,” said Madoka, sitting up suddenly. “I don’t want to be the Pretty Soul of Hope anymore. I don’t want this. This is too sad.” 

Homura crouched beside her. “Madoka,” she said, placing a hand over hers. “It’s going to be fine.”

Madoka didn’t say anything. She got onto her feet and staggered toward the door. “Kyoko-chan,” she said. “Please move to the side.”

“I’m not letting you pass, Madoka.”

“Let her go,” said Homura, getting up too. “I’ll walk Madoka home. Please pay attention to what Cube has to say, okay everyone?”

“Tell us, then,” said Kyoko, closing the door to the apartment behind her as soon as Homura had gone. “There’s a way to bring Sayaka back, isn’t there?”

“You knew too, Kyoko?” said Cube.

“I didn’t,” she said. “But I do know that Pretty Souls can practically do the impossible. What if we worked together really hard to create a big magic event? With our powers combined, and all that crap. That’s what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to say it with everyone around, because I didn't want people putting their faith in a lie.”

“I guess I was the only one who didn’t know,” said Mami, laughing a little. “Leave it to Homura to break the ice.”

“It is something like that,” said Cube. “What I am about to tell you is very dangerous information about where I am from, and the true nature of Revenants. Do you remember what I told you about Revenants?”

“Revenants are energy-hungry ghosts from the farthest part of the universe,” said Hitomi, with the downcast face she often used to learn or recall something from memory. “They prey on planets brimming with energy. They consume and they thrive and they spread their evil like a parasite.”

“Word for word, Hitomi,” said Cube. “Yes, that is what Revenants are. But where did they come from? You see, I am from a planet far, far away, a planet inhabited by things called Incubators. In my time, and with my people, we were obsessed with the good of the universe, just like you and I are now, but we were particularly fixated on producing large amounts of energy to counteract what was known as the heat death of the universe.”

“What is that?” said Kyoko.

“Think of it as reaching the maximum potential of the universe. After that event, everything in the universe would perish. As immortal beings, we became worried about preservation. We soon developed a method which was very effective, and which we used for eons. We essentially cast supermassive black holes into the void. The power of producing that much gravitational force counteracted the effects that we were afraid of. However, as we quickly learned, that was a bad idea.”

“Horrible. There were other civilizations, no doubt,” said Hitomi. “They got angry at your kind.”

“Hey, then why did you do it if you knew you were killing lots of people?” said Kyoko. “You told us your race was intelligent way beyond any of us Earthlings can imagine.”

“My kind were emotionless. We didn’t have any concern for what we termed to be disposable life. I am a mutant, and there was a place for people like me.”

“Hm. So what happened, then?”

“War. Our kind and other spacefaring beings. And civil war too, for we had just discovered how to harness the uninhibited amplification of certain types of energy under certain conditions. It was what you humans now call “magic.” It was discovered by emotional outcasts like me on that planet, individuals living on the planet of the Incubators, and we tried our best to protect that knowledge from our subjugators. Another failure.”

“The Incubators sound like monsters,” said Mami.

“They were ruthless,” said Cube. “They destroyed any threat to the home world just to preserve their pursuit for the scientific ideal. And, before even I knew about it, they already found a use for magic. The manipulation of emotion, which they tested on us and numerous other civilizations, including one very similar to yours, which has long been consumed by the testing’s side effects. It, unfortunately, proved to be immeasurably more effective than supermassive black holes, not only for its energy, but because it ate away at civilizations enough to the point that no one bothered us anymore. With all their technology, they could outrun a black hole, but they could never outrun the feelings they had inside.”

“But something happened, right?” said Hitomi. “I doubt they pulled this charade for long without any resistance.”

“You are correct,” said Cube. “We were the resistance. My kind, and the civilizations we contacted for help. You see, we discovered a potential for magic as well. The power found immense potential in unity and friendship and love, which was especially potent in young people like you girls. Many children died on the day we faced the Incubators. In the end, one of the Incubators nearly killed us all. That Incubator triggered something monstrous; a star in our system was hypercondensed using the vast stores of energy in our planet, which created the last black hole my kind would ever manufacture. The Incubators were destroyed, along with 80% of our resistance force. I was one of the precious few hundred Incubator mutants that escaped. I am now one of the very last. Lend me your soul wand, Kyoko.”

Kyoko blinked. “Here,” she said, rolling the wand forward.

Cube put a paw over the glowing stone at the end of it. “This gem represents the vast power we invested in maintaining the universe’s safety, which is the absolute crux to us. We are more concerned with the little happinesses of people than the overall health of the universe. We spilled our own everlasting blood to create these gems, to protect the worlds that still exist throughout the known universe, to create Pretty Souls on every planet that needed the protection. The Incubators were an immortal race who, after millennia of observation, became cold and unfeeling brutes. We will never return to that state. You see, Revenants were born from my kind’s own sins. They are the magically enhanced shades of all the people that died in that bitter war, whose sole purpose in existing is to devour places of magic, energy and power.”

"Cube," said Kyoko. "You really gave a lot to be here with us today, didn't you? I think we owe you some thanks."

"Thank you for protecting us," said Mami. "We are honored to be Pretty Souls."

"There's no need to thank me," said Cube. "Seeing worlds like yours thriving is all the conviction and inspiration I need."

“I understand, Cube,” said Hitomi. “But you have to explain what this has to do with bringing Saya back.”

“Yes, of course,” said Cube. “If you want to bring Sayaka Miki back, we are going to need to perform some dark magic.”

“If it ends like your story, then I’m not going to do it,” said Kyoko.

“It has great potential if we are successful,” said Cube. “But I didn’t want to bring any more danger to you girls. Forgive me. I feel like I am always trying to go out of my way to protect you.”

“It’s okay, Cube,” said Hitomi. “We know you care. Please tell us.”

“We cannot reanimate,” said Cube. “We cannot bring life back to Sayaka’s dead body. Dead is dead. But what we can do is undo the process of dying. Think of it as a combination of both Sayaka and Homura’s magic. Time and healing, but in reverse. How do we do this? We use a technique that the Incubators used to create living monsters out of the dead. But we’re not recreating a shell of Sayaka, we are recreating Sayaka herself, and for that we need a little bit of everything.” 

“We’ll do whatever it takes, Cube,” said Kyoko. “I’m going to believe you right now, because if there’s a chance Sayaka can come back before her family finds out, then this is worth it.” 

“This is purely theory, but then I have an impressive and successful track record for theories,” said Cube. “All the same, your faith is much appreciated, Pretty Soul of Faith. First, we need to harness all of your magic and my own, plus the wishing power of hundreds upon hundreds of people.”

“Well, fuck,” said Kyoko.

“Don’t worry,” said Hitomi, smiling a little more now. “Kamijou knows that Sayaka is a Pretty Soul. I’ll tell him everything, and he can help us at his upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall in America, two days from now. He has many fans there, and it will be televised too. Will that do, Cube?”

“Yes, that should be enough wishing power,” said Cube, with some relief. She rolled Kyoko’s Soul Wand under her foot. “That takes care of her body. The last thing we need is a vessel for Sayaka’s soul to return to.”

“A vessel?” said Mami. “Do you mean a ship?”

“More like a seed,” said Cube.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I don't intend to make this a series. This was just a little play on what the world would be like if Kyubey had emotions, and a kind of shoulder nudge to pulp Magical Girl anime. There is a lot of pointless worldbuilding I did to make the story make more sense for me. For example, Cube looks like Kyubey without the rings, and her physical bearing is much more relaxed and feline. Her face is a lot less scary too.
> 
> Kamijou plays guitar in this universe. He and Sayaka aren't technically together, but Hitomi gets the sense that they will be soon in the timeframe of this story. Sayaka, however, feels that Kamijou is leaning toward Hitomi, and they normally wouldn't fight about it until about a week from this story, when something happened that caused them to bring it up. Oh, and Hitomi is a magical girl! I wanted to include Hitomi, because she is a friend, and the spirit of the magic at work here is "unity." 
> 
> Here are the Pretty Souls: Kyoko is Pretty Soul of Faith, Mami is Will, Madoka is Hope, Homura is Heart, Sayaka is Peace, and Hitomi is Dreams. I based everything on the strongest part of their nature, and on traits that enhance the spirit of togetherness and unity. If you have any questions why, please ask! I have a lot of useless contributions to this story's universe!


End file.
